The car was rather quiet after Jemma’s scolding, as they drove towards the SM Building where the dance instructor was waiting. Jemma knew that the boys would be busy rehearsing, giving her the perfect opportunity to shift through the broadcasting offers waiting in her inbox. Seeing the boys get to the practice room safely, she settled in a small office on the 7th floor that she knew would be empty and opened her notebook, pulling up Kyuhyun’s file, knowing that he was the one with most offers at the moment. After the successful run of his latest musical, Singing in the Rain, all theatre producers had gone wild trying to get him to star in their latest productions. She shifted through a couple, seeing titles such as Annie Get Your Gun – Why would they do that show in Korea? – and Jekyll and Hyde, feeling the annoyance seeping through her. Having grown up in New York, she remembered seeing a lot of shows with her mother, while her father was working, and the theatre held some of her fondest memories. Yet some of those musical offers were completely and utterly inappropriate for Korean audiences. A musical set in the Wild West, where a woman is in control of her life? Good message, catchy songs, completely culturally inappropriate. She trashed that offer, moving onto the next one and the next one and the next one until the clock struck six and she rushed to pick up Ryeowook for his recording. She found him sprawled on the floor of the practice room, his hair stuck to his forehead, eyes closed. For a second she felt something resembling pity towards the boy, however it was quickly replaced by the urgency of his schedule. Jemma leaned over him and his eyes flew open staring at her in confusion.

“You’ve got half an hour to make yourself look presentable before we have to leave for Sukira,” she said, nodding toward the showers. He scrambled to his feet feeling like the world was tilting, and swung forward, almost knocking Jemma down in the process. She caught him, swiftly putting him back on his feet – dismissing the thoughts of how skinny the boy felt – and ushered him towards the changing room. She contemplated following him to make sure he was on time, but then decided against it, as most Korean men seemed to react rather shocked upon seeing a woman enter their changing rooms. Not that it really mattered to her, idols were just pawns in the big corporate game, not to be seen as anything else than objects.

While Ryeowook was in the shower, Jemma pulled Kyuhyun to the side and handed him a stack of papers,

“Theatre offers. I looked over them and those are the one seemingly most fitting. Go over them tonight and please tell me whether you want to do any of them,” she told him. He just nodded, still remembering her earlier outburst – if you could even call it that, he bitterly thought – and put them in his bag muttering a small thanks.

The rest of the band was slowly getting ready to leave and Myungsoo approached Jemma with as smile, patting her on the back.

“So, how was your first day as a Super Junior manager?” he asked.

She carefully took his hand and moved it away, before plastering a fake smile and sweetly retorting, “Called out Kyuhyun on his gimmicks, so I would say it’s been rather smooth so far, yet still miles from being over,”

Myungsoo just chuckled, “Finally we have someone who’s not afraid to call Kyuhyun out. Maybe you really are what those boys need right now,”

Jemma looked at him, confused at his words. Why was everyone being so nice to her here? Were interpersonal relationships really that important to them? She scoffed, turning away, as Myungsoo added, “By the way, can you do a meeting on Friday? I talked to the other managers and they’d love to try that new Chinese place,” he smiled, “It’s all for work of course,”

The girl rolled her eyes and nodded. Professionalism really didn’t seem that important around here, but she promised herself that no matter what, she was going to follow the rules. Even if that meant going behind the other managers’ backs.

“Rules exist for a reason,” she muttered under her breath, walking away.

What she didn’t notice was Sungmin staring at her, wondering what she was going on about. There was definitely something off about this girl, he contemplated, remembering the uncertainty in her eyes this morning when he asked her to take good care of them, or the food incident that followed later in the day. Maybe it wasn’t his place to worry, yet there was something about her that spiked his curiosity – and judging by the way Ryeowook talked about her at the saloon today, not only his – and made him rather intrigued. Maybe he should talk to Kwanghyung hyung and convince him to organize a group dinner next week and invite her. She would surely open up then, right?

Twenty minutes passed, and still there was no sign of Ryeowook. Jemma kept checking her watch while the rest of the band slowly cleared out, followed by the managers, all cheerful after the successful rehearsal. When the clock struck six twenty-five, Jemma marched down the hall towards